Turkey’s opposition leader is helping to form an unbreakable alliance against Erdogan

For years, Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was ridiculed for his arrogance and inability to take part in post-election elections. But more recently, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has found a bold move.

On Friday, he came uninvited to the country’s statistics agency and accused them of regulating inflation under the auspices of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey. Standing outside the gates after being denied a meeting, he sternly warned civil servants to “do the right thing.”

With the country facing financial crisis, inflation and double-digit hikes, Kilicdaroglu has been implicated in research that shows that the combined votes of the opposition coalition that helped build it are higher than those of Erdogan and his colleagues. The loose coalition believes it could bring down the president in an international vote scheduled for 2023, but which could already be mentioned.

“We have a… Government that has lost much of its power,” Kilicdaroglu, a 72-year-old senior who has led the CHP for more than a decade, told the Financial Times. “A large group of people have accepted the idea that these people are leaving.”

Kilicdaroglu is not an outspoken leader of a non-aligned anti-nationalist movement, Kurds, leftists, rightwingers, secularists and religious extremists.

The CHP led by the founder of the country Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and has been seen as having a religious problem, which led to a conflict with Turkish lawmakers. In describing itself as a social democracy, the CHP also has a strong patriotism that has divided millions of Kurds.

But years after failing to hide the reputation of Erdogan, whose ruling party the Justice and Development (AKP) has ruled for nearly two decades, Kilicdaroglu appeared as the builder of an unexpected group that now opposes Erdogan’s power.

The coalition began in 2017 when rival parties voted in favor of a single “no” vote in that year’s referendum to overthrow the parliamentary system and to consolidate Presidential power.

Their part failed miserably, but the process laid the groundwork for greater unity. This bore fruit two years later when representatives of the opposition coalition won mayoral elections in Istanbul and Ankara, ending 25 years of Erdogan’s rule with allies in major Turkish cities. Since then, Kilicdaroglu has acted as one party with six other parties.

The president tried to break the agreement by using his misconceptions. But the group has so far joined forces to call back Turkey to return to parliament and to focus on economic growth.

A 20-percent drop in prices, coupled with the collapse of the Turkish lira, which has lost almost half of its value against the dollar this year, has contributed to the decline of AKP popularity. Party votes are now more than 30 percent, according to the vote – down from a peak of about 50 percent in the 2011 elections.

“There is a huge shortage of jobs, life is expensive, people cannot afford basic necessities,” said Kilicdaroglu, who has repeatedly called for elections to get people to vote on Erdogan’s economic policies. “People are searching for a way out. Naturally, the only way to survive is political. ”

Experts warn that too much oppressive Erdogan will not go silent if he loses the vote. He refers to the Istanbul mayoral race in 2019, where the President called the fraud and removed the results after criticizing the opposition. Ekrem Imamoglu he won.

Kilicdaroglu removes such concerns. Commenting on the public outcry against Erdogan’s decision to re-run the Istanbul race, which led his opponents to disrupt the second round, he said the President should relinquish power peacefully if he loses. “Istanbul was a pilot,” he said. “He will not want to give up power, but we will release him.”

Erdogan’s supporters, too, were not intimidated by the opposition victory, saying: “We will not run the country with envy, anger and revenge.”

Aware of the CHP’s history of the problem among traditional healers, Kilicdaroglu last month apologized for past wrongdoing of the party, such as the protest against women wearing a scarf.

Despite this, a recent survey by Turkish research analyst Metropoll found that about 70 percent of AKP voters, most of whom are Muslim volunteers, feared the hope of a CHP-formed government and allies from the correct IYI party.

Some of the CHP’s main points are also being challenged around the world, including the promise to ally with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and the repatriation of 3.6m Syrian refugees.

Opponents may retaliate, investigators warn. Some CHPs are worried that Kilicdaroglu will prove himself to be the perfect candidate for Erdogan in the presidency, although elections show he may not be more popular than Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas, the mayor of Ankara.

Kilicdaroglu refuses to challenge the president’s hopes. But in the meantime, critics should focus on the economic woes facing the country. “There is a fire in the kitchen,” he said. “Everyone is looking for a way to escape.”